October 12, 2009

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A senior USAID economist has written a formal dissent memo which tells senior State Department officials that Special Representative Richard Holbrooke’s Pakistani aid demands are causing turmoil in the U.S. AID mission in Pakistan and are counterproductive for achieving near-term counterinsurgency goals in the country.

Entitled “Dissent memo: Contradictory objectives for USAID/Pakistan program,” the three-page sensitive but unclassified memo, written by career USAID PhD economist C. Stuart Callison, is dated October 2 and addressed to Anne-Marie Slaughter, the Director of the State Department Policy Planning Office.

Callison's memo says the USAID mission in Pakistan is “receiving contradictory objectives" from Holbrooke about U.S. aid for Pakistan.

“On the one hand, it is expected to achieve high impact counterinsurgency and broad-based economic development objectives as quickly as possible," Callison’s memo says. “On the other hand, it is asked to do this by working through national and local government channels ... and not through U.S. contractors and NGOs, to avoid the overhead charges."

“These are all worthy goals,” Callison continues. ”However, they are contradictory objectives without a reasonable period for the latter.”

Neither Callison nor other U.S. officials contacted immediately responded to requests for comment on the memo, which was first published by USA Today. Callison was a career USAID economist, who retired from USAID, then worked for a time for Nathan Associates, which does economics contract work for USAID. He later returned to USAID because of a shortage of economists there, an associate says.

The dissent memo comes as several USAID contractors who have been working in Pakistan say they have been put on notice that their contracts will only be renewed for 45 day or 90 day periods and may have to discontinue their programs. One USAID contractor says he employs three ex-pats and 200 Pakistanis to administer a program in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas under a five year USAID contract. But since June, he said, his program has been thrown into doubt by plans by the US government to bypass the U.S. firms to hire the Pakistani subcontractors directly.

U.S. officials involved with the policy speaking on background say they are fighting an entrenched system under which USAID and the US government have grown increasingly reliant on Beltway contractors the past couple decades. Delivering aid directly through the Pakistani government and NGOs will make it go further and build up Pakistani capacity, they point out.

A U.S. government-wide policy review underway is "determining the best means of providing such assistance, to ensure most effective use of our funds, ... ownership by the Pakistani Government and public, alignment of our priorities .... and to increase efforts to build the capacity of Pakistani entities," government talking points on the issue say.

But officials acknowledge they do not yet have a fully functioning system set up and in place in Pakistan to administer the aid more directly, and that is in part why the USAID contracts are being renewed for short term periods in the interim. Former Clinton-era Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Robin Raphel has recently arrived in Islamabad to oversee coordination of non-military U.S. assistance to Pakistan.

“The goal of implementing foreign assistance through local institutions has a long and worthy history,” one former senior USAID official in Afghanistan told POLITICO on condition of anonymity. “When the host country government and host country private sector has the capacity, the system works well. Neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan fit the bill very well. USAID economist Callison’s memo notes some of the problems quite accurately. … There is some local capacity to handle the US assistance funds, but not at the level of $7.5 billion.”

The $7.5 billion US Pakistani aid bill passed by Congress earlier this month and championed by Holbrooke has caused a huge and unexpected political crisis in Pakistan. Pakistani military leaders have railed against conditions in the bill that they say infringe on Pakistan’s sovereignty.

Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington Hussain Haqqani was reported by Pakistani daily Dawn to be on the way out today in part as a consequence of the political furor that has erupted in Pakistan over the aid bill, that would triple U.S. assistance to the country.

Washington South Asia hands say the bill has been an unexpected fiasco, and seems to be playing into the hands of anti-American forces seeking to portray the country’s civilian leaders including Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari as beholden to Washington and lacking independence.

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By next spring President Obama will reluctantly announce that Ambassador Holbrooke is stepping down to spend more time with his family. And - after the wild applause and cheering die down - the rest of us at State, USAID, NSC and elsewhere will be left trying to fix the damage and pick up the pieces.

Laura, here's an 'Insider Scoop' for you. Everything we do in the Mittel East, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran is 'flawed'...by definition. Because the basic premise(s) are wrong, and the actions-to-date have been horrendous. Our first, and most serious error, has been adopting the unqualified 'Israel Uber Alles' position, which makes us an antagonist to every other nation in the area. Because of this unquestioned slavishness to the demands of the Zionists, especially as emphasized under the unfortunate NeoConZionist reign of the US, '01-'09, we instigated a unilateral attack, invasion, and occupation against a sovereign nation which posed us no threat, Iraq, and abandoned appropriate retaliation against Afghanistan, which harbored the training of the 9/11 attackers (and considered no action against the Saudis, which bred them). These actions and inactions have, justifiably, created fear and distrust of the US not only in this region, but throughout the world, as if we were ruled by a lunatic. (Which we were, but that has now ended). But if our new leader does not take immediate action to reverse these philosophies and actions, and let these peoples live with, and survive (or not) their own civilizations, we shall be increasingly resented for having the hubris to believe that we not only know what's best for other civilizations that have outlived us by many centuries, but are willing to destroy them in order to 'save' them, by forcing them to adopt our policies. WHICH IS ESPECIALLY IRONIC, HORRIFIC, AND A TRAGEDY, SINCE WE CANNOT EVEN AGREE ON, STATE, AND KNOW WHAT OUR POLICIES ARE.

This is just another example of what you get, when you appoint a man WITHOUT EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE to the highest EXECUTIVE office...
Various departments run loose and one tentacle does not know, what the other is doing.
Despite the best intentions of Obama, he is simply not experienced at RUNNING anything -- he was a so-so legislator (mostly voting "present", as he worried about the next elections more than doing his job) and an employee. The only thing he RAN, was a small charity, which FAILED in its goal of improving Chicago public schools...
3 more years of mediocrity...

Laura, speaking of Foreign Policy decisions and dissensions, have you heard anything about whether the raging disagreements about whether to publicly announce, or not, that the US/Mexico border fence is going to be electrified? Or just let those aspiring illegal aliens find out for themselves?

Its a big deal to write a formal dissent memo and an even bigger deal for it to leak so quickly. Callison as a retiree was in a safe position to do so. You can count on the fact that many others support his conclusions.
This will be a great chapter in Bob Woodward's forthcoming book on the Obama administration.

I wonder who is going to intervene in here? Mr. President office or Madame Secretary?
I wish if the senior State Department officials came to Kosovo and check out what the US development agency is doing in regard to energy sector!!!

I have a great idea. For every illegal we have in this country, let's round up 5 liberals and drop-kick them into the heart of Mexico, where they can then inflict their dopey ideas on the Mexican government. We are always told how hard-working and industrious illegals are. So this seems like a glorious trade to me. Mexico can get our do-nothings and "artistes" and we'll get industrious people who work hard. John Lennon wrote the song, Imagine. I'm imagining... ahh.

Funny how Republicans quickly forget how they aided Saddam with WMD; Or that Bush and Obama have and are siding Pakistan which is building the worlds largest plutominum prodicing reactor in the world ....when will the butt-whipes in Washington DC learn that none of these countries are our friends? Clearly Repos and Demos haven't learned yet? Will they learn when our next alleged ally attacks the USA?

This memo was not at all informed by the fact that its author has gotten rich off the public-to-private-consulting gravy train and is trying to keep it going as long as possible. That definitely has nothing to do with it.